Cornish Pirates 41, Ospreys Premiership Select 5

Playing their second Pool 3 game in this season’s British & Irish Cup competition, the Cornish Pirates once again displayed their growing credentials with another winning performance.

Making a first ever swooping visit to the Mennaye Field the Ospreys Premiership Select side, which had lost 25-14 to London Irish in their Cup opener, arrived keen to get a win under their belts.

Former ‘Pirate’ Rheon James, who now plays his club rugby in the centre for Aberavon Wizards, was making a swift Duchy return for the visitors.

As had happened at so many rugby grounds during the weekend, ahead of kick-off a minute was taken to honour the memory of Munster’s head coach Anthony Foley, whilst thoughtful words were also expressed during the afternoon to mark the week’s 50th anniversary of the Aberfan disaster.

With a strong wind behind them the Pirates dominated play in the first half. Indeed, they couldn’t have got off to a better start, thanks to No. 8 Tom Duncan crashing over the line with just a minute on the clock. Fly-half Laurence May added the extra two points, as he did similarly following prop Marlen Walker’s seventeenth minute score. May also, for good measure, then landed a penalty goal from all of 40 metres out.

It took until approaching the half hour mark before the Ospreys side threatened inside the Pirates ‘22’. James strived to power over at the scoreboard corner, but was halted, and when play was taken to the opposite end of the field the Pirates extended their lead with a converted try scored by wing Alex O’Meara.

It was perhaps only natural that the Welsh team would be less cohesive than their opposition, but credit was due them nonetheless for responding to notch a try of their own. Managing to create space on the right, the ball was worked to wing Tom Williams, who pinned back his ears and crossed for a score that would make it 24-5 at the break.

The enthusiastic Pirates under 9s provided a half-time mini-rugby exhibition, and a collection also took place for Wooden Spoon, which is the recognised children’s charity of rugby.

With the wind on their backs, and fly-half Joe Scrivens keen to use it, Ospreys PS strove to make life a little more difficult for the Pirates in the second half. However, flanker Alex Cheesman, who had been an early replacement for the injured Matt Bolwell, scored the Pirates fourth try on 66 minutes, and May, to complete a faultless afternoon’s work off the tee, duly made light of the conversion.

The visitors would soon lose scrum-half Chris Williams to the sin bin, thus enabling the Pirates an opportunity to take swift advantage against 14 men. They did. Further tries from Duncan and O’Meara – the latter’s a scintillating effort finished in the scoreboard corner - sealed a convincing win, and following their 23-10 points victory away against Connacht Eagles last weekend, it confirmed a satisfying start to their Cup campaign.

Commenting post-match, co-coach Alan Paver said:

“We made a number of unforced errors, but overall it was decent rounded performance and we were ultimately pleased both with the win and with maximum points taken.”

Alan added:

“As we have said before, it is important that we give squad members their chance in such games, as they all need a good runout. Wingmen Jack Arnott and Alex O’Meara showed accustomed pace, and credit also to Edd Pascoe for stepping up and deserving his man-of-the-match award.”

Cornish Pirates: 15 Toby May, 14 Jack Arnott, 13 Tom Hendrickson, 12 Nicolas Battista, 11 Alex O’Meara, 10 Laurence May (Will Cargill 68), 9 Mike Pope (Stuart Townsend 51); 1 Marlen Walker (Jack Andrew 67), 2 Tom Channon (Jack Innard 55), 3 Tyler Gendall, 4 Chris Morgan (capt, Brett Beukeboom 55), 5 Edd Pascoe, 6 Matt Bolwell (Alex Cheesman 11), 6 Sam Simmonds, 8 Tom Duncan.

Replacement (not used): Alex Dancer

Ospreys Premiership Select: 15 Morgan Williams, 14 Tom Williams, 13 Joe Thomas (Phil Jones 68), 12, Rheon James, 11 Tom O’Flaherty, 10 Joe Scrivens (Keiran Williams 60), 9 Chris Williams; 1 Rowan Jenkins (capt, Ollie Evans 72), 2 Alex Dunham (Jordan Liney 56), 3 Dan Suter (Alex Jeffries 68), 4 Kyle Evans, 5 Jon Kenny (Mitchell Walsh 18), 6 Joe Tomalin-Reeves (John Howard 72), 7 Will Jones, 8 Charlie Davies.

Yellow card: C. Williams.

Scorers:- Cornish Pirates – tries: Duncan (2), O’Meara (2), Walker, Cheesman; cons: L. May (4); pen: L. May. Ospreys Premiership Select -

Referee: Sean Gallagher (IRFU)

Attendance: 1,405

St. Austell Brewery’s ‘Cornish Pirates’ man-of-the-match: Edd Pascoe.